About 10 seconds in, the pitch attitude raises slightly and the flaps appear to lower (possibly beyond 15 degrees). The upward pitch would be in expectation of the nose down moment you would get when the flaps get lowered beyond 15 degrees when drag becomes more prevalent. At that point, the Config warning probably sounded and the PNF probably jumped on the gear. On an ILS, the gear and flaps are hanging out before the OM, on a visual you have more leeway, but flaps/gear are on the landing checklist ("30 degrees, green lights"), and I am reasonably sure the PF didn't call for the landing checklist on short final....someone missed something...glad he didn't stay at flaps 15, he may not have gotten the warning until the GPWS sounded...

Back in the day, I was taught to call 3 green on base, doing a visual or immediately after turning in on a strait final,sometimes a little earlier depending how you are positioned. Generally a checklist will put you between 5-10 but a lot of it is pilot preference and as I said, it depends on your positioning, BUT, that did appear to be a little too close for comfort.LOL. I have heard of 3 green being called and nobody ever going for the gear. I kinda suspicion that is what happened he as they appeared to come down normally

If you consider that this was FedEx who prolly have more hours on this machine than anybody else in the galaxy and you consider that this airplane is one of the most difficult to land due to inherent flaws that were overlooked by the FAA then really you should have no reason to quetion this landing. As Sparkie noted there could have been some good reason for this. I have no doubt that the FedEx crews can beat the cheack list at almost any stage of any proceedure.

It is easy to tell the difference. the MD-10's do not have the center peg leg gear, and do not have winglets, and also they have been upgraded avionics and converted to 2 man flight crews (Eliminated the Engineer). The MD 11's can carry A LOT more weight as well. If you ever see on with Wing lets and but no Center Gear then that is because it is deferred. You can Defer the center gear up with MAJOR weight restrictions.

I got my CRJ Friday. We drove down early and picked it up. We were in the air by 1130. 18 minutes on a cold airplane til pushback wasn't bad. ATC let us out quick. Must have been a lite day at DFW as DTO is up on the north end of their area. We went out into Western OK around Clinton(KCSM) and played for a couple hours. Never missed a lick on all we put it thru. Hit KFSM about 1530; mx chief said it's mine for a week. Don't even think about flying it. CEO was standing there too and said yes sir. Other than some playing around, I doubt we'll be doing much before the holidays.

I've been typed for 2-3 years now.Got all that down at Eagle in Ft Worth 2-3 years ago. That 's when me and some others were doing all that fill in the last couple of years before everything blew up, ERJ & CRJ's, the whole family. Besides the trips, we got 2 guys on the King Air that I'll be training up on this one over the next couple of years and then I guess it's the porch and sweet teea for good. Actually, it's Coca-Cola this afternoon. lol. To tell you the truth, I was kinda starting to like it a little. When I get this little jag done, I think I'll be ready for it.

This will make it nice, but to tell you the truth, I have kinda enjoyed that back porch this year. I really thought the truckline would give me something to do and make the transition. I didn't count on that sale coming so now I'm back to this. It will all be interesting. I may work myself out of a job pretty quick anyway if them boys learn fast and we are busy enough for them to build some hours. That will be the key.

When approaching airports high up in the Andes such as SKRG, SKBO, SEGU, SLPB and others flaps and gear are dropped even 20 miles out as high rates of descend/steep approaches are the norm and the attendant drag helps. A friend of mine a full ATP 777 Captain for Qatar Airways sometimes drops gear and flaps 10 out when flying into European airports.

In VMC the requirement is to be configured by 500 ft. It's possible to have a descent rate close to 1000 ft/min on a visual, so since the gear came down 30 seconds prior to touchdown, you can do the math. Close, yes. but most likely he met the requirements and saved a ton of Jet A.

What is the stall speed on that airplane with the gear up, and flaps set at approach?. And I wonder what the calculated Vref was? Think about it! Could they fly Vref +5 with the gear up and flaps at approach that close to the end of the runway without stalling? Vref is a calculated speed reference for landing based on several factors but assumes gear down and flaps down to landing configuration. Obviously this crew was flying well above Vref in that confirguration, or they would have recieved a stall warning. Since stall speed for gear up ,flaps approach is higher than the Vref speed for landing gear down and flaps down. If one engine failed at that point the airspeed would have deteriated rapidly and the air craft would have stalled. Because the stall recovery precedure would call for max power flaps approach. Now if the Vref is 145 kts. the sink rate is around 750 - 850 fpm .This is the result of poor crew procedure, deviating from standard procedure,checklist, I have witnessed more than one crew in the simulators set up there aircraft just the one in the video and crash when an engine quits at dangerous airspeeds/configurations close to the end of the runway.These size aircraft need room and professional cockpit management. The crew in the video was at the proper position to call for flaps to land. I myself personaly would not wait that late in the approach to call for flaps to land, but only after the PNF selected landing flaps that the warning came on and then jumped on the gear handle , because I wonder how much time remained before touch down and time to completed gear down. It is good practice if not required procedure to have your aircraft checklist complete and configured, stabilized, a few miles out.

I do too. Personally if you are doing visual and you got ahold of your bird, you don't even need a checklist, other than to call it out for the CVR to cover your butt if you do crash.lol. I do think they were a little close in though; probably head up the hiney. Happens after a boring flight.

Spirit Airlines will hire you, a $1,000,000 Riddle degree and 250 hours, you'll get FO in a bus. You don't even have to know basics like whether that's weather or Chicago on the radar for deviation purposes!!!